The children and I went garage saling last Wednesday and snapped a few pictures of some signs.  I want to show you how simple it can be to have a winning sale.  And how complicated it can be to mess it up :).

I could see this sign from several blocks away and knew which lane to be in to make the correct turn.  I didn’t have to scan through a bunch of  information. All of the signs for this sale, looked like this so it was easy for me to find the location.

Still a simple sign, but the outline on the arrow makes it even easier to see.  The balloons caught my eye and every sign for this sale also matched down to the color of the balloons. I knew when I found it!

Now look at this sign.  It is full of information too small and illegible to read even up close!  When I got out of the car to take a photo, I saw that the arrows point both directions.  Depending on which direction you are driving, you would turn down the wrong street.  When we finally found the sale, there were no prices on anything.  We found several things we would have liked to buy, but there was no person sitting at the sale.  Even though we shopped for a while and weren’t very quiet about it, no one ever came out.  We left.  A week later the sign is still there rotting in the rain.  It doesn’t have to be this hard.

Here are some tips for having a winning sale that I sent to my newsletter a few weeks ago.  I think they are worth printing again:

1.  Invite a friend or 2 to join you.  The more stuff you have the more people will stop.  It’s also handy to have someone to take turns watching the sale for bathroom breaks, childcare breaks, and meal preparations.

2.  The #1 garage sale day of the week is Wednesday.  The #2 day is Saturday.  If you can’t be open 4 days (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) then pick at least one of the big days to be open.

3.  Get as many tables and clothing racks as possible.  In a pinch you can lay a door over 2 saw horses to use as a table.  You can make an inexpensive rack from PVC pipe.  Borrow tables from family, friends, neighbors or your church.

4.  Take the time to clean your items.  A little bit of elbow grease will insure you get a better price.  Dirty items have a good chance of staying put no matter how cheaply they are priced.

5.  Do price every item, or have a flat rate for certain things that are clearly labeled.  “All clothes $.50” for example.  “Make offer” sales frustrate the buyer because they have to stop and ask about every item and are embarrassed to offend you by offering too low.  Most people walk away from a sale like this.

Tip:  Cut squares off masking tape rolls and stick them to cookie sheets to make price tags.

6.  If more than one person is in the sale, use a 2 initial code for each person and then keep a spiral notebook with a page for each person in the sale.  Masking tape tabs on the pages will help you flip to the page quickly.  Leave the first few pages in the notebook blank for writing daily totals, and when the sale isn’t busy you can transfer each person’s earnings to their page.

7.    Try to organize your sale as well as possible.  Put housewares together, office supplies together, group clothing by size and season.  We had limited time to do this before the sale opened, but I walked around moving items as things sold until the sale was well organized.  Every time a sold item made an empty spot, I shifted items to fill the spot.  This spread things out so each item could be seen and kept our sale looking huge even though more than half the original items were gone.

Tip:  Move especially appealing items, like a beautiful dress or a super cute swim suit, to a front spot that can be seen from the road.  Keep tools and other “man” type items in prominent places too.  Men can be some of your biggest customers but most will only shop a few minutes.

8.  If the weather is sunny, pull tables and items into the driveway.  The more stuff that can be seen from the road the more likely people will stop instead of driving by slowly and moving on.

9.  If you a person driving by slowly, wave a friendly hello.  They feel noticed and are more likely to stop and look around now that they realize they’ve been seen.

10.  Signs are very important!  The simpler and easier to be seen the better.  High contrast black writing on white signs is perfect.  “Write Yard Sale” or “Garage sale” with a large black arrow in huge thick letters.  Cover it with plastic to protect from the elements.  Be sure you have a sign at every turn and periodically check through the day to make sure your signs are still there.  Good manners require that you remove signs at the end of the day and put them out again when the sale reopens.

Tip:  Don’t forget the sign in the yard.  You don’t want anyone to think that you are moving or just cleaning out the garage J.

11.  Advertising your sale on Craigslist is free, easy to do, and will bring extra traffic.  Especially do this if you have large or specialty items.  Posting photos of your key items and setup will help encourage people to make the trip.

12.  For safety, wear your money in a fanny pack, and start the sale with plenty of ones and quarters to make change.  Periodically take large amounts of money into the house in a safe place.  If someone robs you, calmly hand over the pouch.  It will only be a part of your earnings from the sale.

13.  Don’t price items too high.  Good jeans with no holes are worth $1 or $2.  Most kid’s clothes move best at $.50 an item.  If you have a lot of name brand great quality items, you should try to sell them at a consignment store like Children’s Orchard first.  Pricing things right will earn you a great reputation and get people coming back year after year. On the other hand a friend of ours in the sale had a lot of new looking purses priced at $.25 each.  I could have easily gotten a dollar each for them.  When in doubt, get a second opinion from a garage sale buddy.  If several people look at the item and put it back you can bet the price is too high.  It’s fine to walk around and mark your items down while the sale is going.

Tip:  I love buying clothes at garage sales.  When we can’t wear them anymore I sell them for the same price I paid for them and use the money to buy at garage sales again.  Contrast that with buying clothes new and then selling them at a garage sale taking the money and buying new again.  The loss is substantial.

I see having a garage sale as a ministry.  We could just take our items to a thrift store where they will bump the price up 6-10 times the garage sale value.  (The proceeds usually go to a worthy cause.)   Or we can offer our items at low prices for a few days and give people a chance to really save while we recoup some money to help our families.  After the sale take what’s left to the thrift store and donate to help them raise funds for their worthy cause.  It’s a win-win situation.

A question I’m often asked is:  Do you save items from a garage sale for a future sale?  I used to and often the items did sell at a later date.   Recently I’ve felt the joy of decluttering!  The thought of taking any of those things back home was terrible.  It felt really good to donate them to a worthy cause.